


The Legacy of Names

by Traxits



Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, Shazam (Comics)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Shazam family feels, seriously though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 01:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3832252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The foster kids all get a few minutes to sit and breathe after their adventure against Black Adam, and together, they try to sort out what, exactly, is happening to Billy.  More importantly, what are they even going to call him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Legacy of Names

"So you can fly."

Billy sighed as he nodded. He leaned back in the snow, arms folded behind his head as he looked up at the sky. "Yeah. When I'm, you know, changed. I can fly."

It was Freddy who leaned over and poked him, and Billy tilted his head back to look up at him. "So," Freddy said again, "you also have super strength. And like, crazy smarts."

For a minute, Billy wasn't sure he wanted to answer that. He felt a little insane when they talked about it like this, but it was the first time they'd all managed to get any length of time alone together. They all had questions. Questions about everything. And no matter how little Billy wanted to answer them, they deserved those answers, didn't they?

Freddy and Darla and Pedro and Eugene and Mary. They were...

Well. He wasn't sure yet. Maybe not quite family, but they were something. They were important.

He nodded again. "Yeah. I got a whole list of super things whenever I change."

Eugene sighed as he lowered himself into the snow beside Billy, and he pulled out the tablet again. His bare fingers slid across the screen, but he didn't unlock it, so the glass was still black. "And you see things we can't. And that, Batson, happens whether you're changed or not."

Darla stayed over on the swing nearby, and she called out, "Yeah! You were talking to that lady—"

"Yeah," Billy agreed, and his elbows leaned in toward one another, helping cut him off a little from the press of questions. Then there was pressure on them, and Mary's face appeared over him as she gently pulled them apart again. She met his gaze, and his chest went tight. Stupid. So what if she looked a lot like the picture he had of his mom?

"And you can... enchant us. All of us. At once."

There were no questions in her voice, and Billy swallowed before he nodded. "And Tawny," he finally murmured. Freddy's eyes went wide, but the rest of them all stared at Billy like he'd lost his mind. He rolled over onto his side, shifting his arms so that he was laying on one. The other he reached out to dig a little hole in the snow.

"Tawny?" Darla asked, and Pedro, who was pushing her on the swing, dropped his hand to her shoulder. Billy dragged in a breath.

"You don't have to tell us," Pedro said, and the knot starting to twist inside of Billy's stomach loosened slightly.

"So are we permanent like you?" Eugene asked. His voice was quiet and steady, just as calculated as he always sounded. Billy managed a smile for that. For all that Eugene sounded, they could have been discussing a school play or something.

"I don't think so," he finally said, and he pushed himself to sit up. Mary dropped down into the snow beside him. He glanced over at her, then back at Eugene. "I... did something wrong in the fight. I enchanted—" What had Black Adam called Tawny? Billy's 'animal avatar'?

He bit his bottom lip, trying to figure out just how to explain it. "I enchanted a tiger," he decided on. "Tawny. He's a tiger in the zoo. I enchanted him and I did it wrong. It's why you guys lost the powers."

They were all quiet for a long moment, then Darla shot off the swing and crashed into Billy's chest, her arms tight around his waist.

"I'm glad you saved the tiger!" she exclaimed, and Billy froze under the hug. For someone so tiny, she packed a lot of strength, and he wasn't actually sure he could get away from her. More than that, he wasn't even sure he wanted to.

He met Mary's gaze, and for a second, he stayed where he was, just looking at her. Then his hand came down to press against Darla's back. He was not-quite hugging her in response, and it felt... strangely good.

He couldn't remember the last person he'd hugged before Darla.

He dragged in a breath, and Darla pulled back from him with a wide smile. "What are you going to call yourself, anyway?"

Billy blinked up at her, and he smiled before he shrugged. "I don't... I haven't thought about it really?"

"I think you should be Captain Marvel!" She jumped just a little when she said that, and she charged back over toward the swing. Billy laughed faintly as he fell back into the snow again.

"Captain Marvel? What am I even Captaining?"

Pedro grinned as he pushed Darla on the swing again, just enough to get her going. "Us! The Marvel Family, obviously, Billy."

Billy's stomach dropped at the thought of them doing this again, of them in danger against someone like Black Adam. The thought of Darla's too-wide, too-easy smile against that kind of twisted anger—

Eugene cleared his throat slightly, and Billy's attention snapped over to him. He smiled very softly, and Billy frowned in response.

"Who was the wizard?" he asked, and Billy shook his head.

"He called himself Shazam," he said softly, remembering. And the old man was dead, destroyed because he'd given Billy the power that crackled under his skin—

"And that's your magic word," Eugene said. He didn't wait for Billy's nod as he clicked his tablet on again. "Well then, I think out of respect for the wizard, you should use his name."

Billy's frown deepened. "How is that out of respect for him? I mean, I'd just kind of be stealing his identity, wouldn't I?"

"Carrying on his legacy," Eugene corrected, with the sort of absent patronizing tone that used to get under Billy's skin and drive him crazy. Now, maybe the lightning just took up too much room, because Billy couldn't find it in himself to get mad. He just shook his head.

"Maybe," he started, but before he even got the word out, Pedro and Darla and Mary had started laughing.

"Shazam!" they all three shouted, and Billy shushed them before a smile touched his own face.

Shazam, was it?

"Well, I guess that's that," he said, looking up at the sky. He still had the little box of ashes in his pocket, all that was left of Black Adam, and he wondered if Black Adam and Shazam would understand. They'd both come from such different times... Who knew what they would have thought. "Shazam it is," he murmured, and the laughter around him was warmer than he could ever remember being.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the DC Bland Headcanon [here](http://blanddcheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/102147547800/in-the-new-52-billy-batson-fully-explained-his):  
>  _In the New 52, Billy Batson fully explained his powers to his foster siblings. Darla exclaimed that he should call himself Captain Marvel. Billy didn’t know who/what he would be the captain of. Pedro said that he would be the captain of them, the Marvel Family. Eugene said while they are the Marvel family it would make sense to honor the man that died giving this power and go by Shazam._


End file.
